In 1999 at Aptos Junior High School, Monica Magallanes, a psychotherapist, was working with two severely emotionally disturbed children, when a suicide attempt happened. A child tried to throw himself down a stairwell and Magallanes tried to restrain him. Meanwhile, the other child became upset and smashed Magallanes over the head with an old telephone. A few days later, the damage to her brain began to surface.

“I was in the field working with a child and I lost use of my hands, I couldn’t use them,” Magallanes says.

Bonny Doon artists open their studios

Information in this article was relevant to the event in 2007. Sorry for any confusion. CM
Here’s the bad news: You’re gonna burn up some gas money and put a few extra miles on your car. The good news: It’s worth it. For those daring enough to make the trek out of comfy downtown Santa Cruz, and venture into Bonny Doon for Open Studios—the mountain version—the brief inconvenience of driving out of your comfort zone will turn up rewards of the artistic variety.

First time Open Studios artists come out of hiding

Mike Shuler’s studio is concealed behind a forest of bamboo and a nondescript mailbox. It’s an easy place to miss—nearly hidden in the unincorporated Live Oak area.

Until now, the undeniably talented artist (and his studio) has remained, for the most part, out-of-sight from Santa Cruzans. (His woodwork is typically shown in galleries across the country.) That’s all about to change when Shuler and his wife Rainey, (a photographer), invite Santa Cruzans to walk beyond the bamboo and view their work during the next two weekends of Open Studios.

It’s all in the family for one pair of artists in Open Studios

Some people believe there are no accidents. Lynette Cederquist is one of them. When she was 47, Cederquist was working as a teacher for gifted children. She was on a field trip, going about life and work as usual, when wham—an accident—her head slammed into a mirror on a school bus and in that instant, Cederquist’s life was changed. The accident ended her career and in fact, at the time, it ended many things including happiness (for the time being) and her short-term memory.

Survivors Healing Center expands its services

She first remembers something happening around age 2. It’s cloudy, but there are some details: Jan was in her crib and a shadow was looming nearby. Suddenly, yelling ensued and the shadow disappeared. Years later, a story surfaced, explaining that the shadow—her uncle—was crazy, that he’d left the house that day with only his underwear on. But Jan didn’t quite put the pieces together until she was much, much older. By the time she hit her 20s, she knew something was sketchy about her childhood. By the time she was in her 30s, certain memories that she had disconnected from began to surface.

New arts magazine hits Santa Cruz

James Lafferty looks a lot like actor Jeremy Sisto, a thespian who has made his way up the Hollywood food chain by starring in indie flicks. Sisto found a way to break into a gritty industry with plenty of chutzpah and talent, just like his doppelganger, Lafferty. But Lafferty is trying a different niche. Instead of cinema, he’s happily elbowing his way into Santa Cruz’s publishing industry—indie style.

Why it’s pageturning time for five local women

They hover around a spacious, wooden table. They’re dressed nicely as if they were attending afternoon tea. They giggle like schoolgirls, but a mature sense of accomplishment and pride permeates the air. They are a quintet of local women, aged 58 to 80 and they are a curious minority: they’ve co-written a mystery novel and self-published it.

A look back on the life and love of Maude Meehan

In 1979, Santa Cruzan Amber Coverdale Sumrall pulled her car up to a house in Boulder Creek and ventured inside. Her life changed completely. And it was all because of Maude Meehan, a muse who introduced young Sumrall to the colorful world of poetry. Meehan, then fiftysomething, was teaching poetry to a small group of women in her adorable country house. Her impact on Sumrall was tremendous—the elder became not only a mentor and teacher, but also a dear friend, whom Sumrall and many other Santa Cruzans are now mourning. The esteemed “poet to the people” passed away on Saturday, Aug. 25. She will be remembered with fondness, and hopefully a poem or two, by her literary friends, fans and her family.

MichaelAngelo Gallery preps for its second annual fashion show

Santa Cruz isn’t exactly the fashion capital of the world. I mean, Birkenstocks? They’re way out of style, folks. Tevas? Ditto. That hippie look? Out. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have some fashionable finds among us; that someone could opt out of the really laid-back Santa Cruz style and maybe strike up a savvy, hip “look.” Enter The 2nd Annual MichaelAngelo Gallery Fashion Show and Trunk Sale, which hits the runway in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 14.

Not even magic can stop the end of ‘Harry Potter’

It seems that Harry Potter has cast a spell on our hearts, minds and our checkbooks. The famous dark-haired, be spectacled, fictional boy, who poured out of J.K. Rowling’s colorful imagination, has single-handedly turned a generation of TV-loving, internet-obsessed young people into readers. And on top of that, young Harry has recaptured the love of reading in adults, too. And so it is with a huge slice of disappointment that the epic series of Harry Potter books has come to an end with the final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.”